Word: swaggart
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Swaggart's celebrity in Latin America is largely the creation of television. His hour-long weekly show is broadcast by 511 Latin American stations and draws more viewers than the program of any other U.S.-based TV evangelist. Among his devotees in San Jose was Rosario Orozco, 32, who said she often wakes up feeling sad, "but then the Lord tells me to turn on Jimmy Swaggart, and suddenly everything in life is precious." Swaggart is not only an orator whose incendiary style appeals to Latin Americans but a creditable gospel singer with a lively band. His proficient road crew...
Befitting his VIP status, Swaggart moves in lofty circles when he is abroad. In El Salvador, he met with President Jose Napoleon Duarte, who has confessed that he too watches the Swaggart TV show. In Chile, he met Dictator Augusto Pinochet and later urged his audience in Santiago to "pray for General Pinochet and his beautiful wife." Swaggart usually avoids overt politicking in his Latin American sermons and disclaims partisanship. But the Rev. Jaime Wright, a U.S. Presbyterian working in Brazil, agreeing with Roman Catholic critics, charges that Swaggart and like-minded Evangelicals are giving "uncritical support" to oppressive right...
...Swaggart phenomenon is part of a wave of Protestant expansion across the traditionally Roman Catholic region. According to Brazil's Ecumenical News Agency, Latin American Protestants have increased in number from 12 million to 30 million since 1978. Most of them have joined Evangelical and Pentecostal groups rather than such older mainline denominations as the Presbyterians and Methodists. In El Salvador, Protestants claim 800,000 worshipers, more than double the number in 1980; in Costa Rica, they have increased by one-fifth, to 330,000, since...
Catholic leaders are understandably concerned about this. Before Swaggart's San Salvador rallies, Auxiliary Bishop Gregorio Rosa Chavez warned about the advent of an unnamed "Evangelical preacher given to spectacles." Though most Evangelicals have toned down suggestions of anti-Catholicism, Swaggart's language is more adversarial than that of the bishop. The preacher has insisted that Catholicism is a "false cult" and "not a Christian religion." In Central America, however, he made only soothing references to "our Catholic friends...
While Latin American Catholicism struggles with problems like a serious clergy shortage, the Protestants are amply staffed and funded from the U.S. Swaggart says he has funneled $8 million into El Salvador and Costa Rica alone for welfare and church aid. Says Jesuit Father Jon Sobrino, an exponent of liberation theology: "The sects have taken advantage of the weaknesses of the Catholic Church, and the church doesn't know what to do." Asked to explain his impact across Latin America, Swaggart allows, "Problems, persecution, difficulties -- these have always been catalysts that make people seek God. We put hope in people...